aescripts + aeplugins

Alex White

Wow! This is something really new and one of the most wanted feature that after effects was really missing!

Congrats guys!

tony travieso

does this work with any version of AE?

Lloyd Alvarez

does this work with any version of AE?

Works with CS6 and above. You can check the compatibility tab on every product page for exact version info.

tony travieso

thanks Lloyd

Stevan del George

Considered contacting VideoCopilot for a "Sticky Pass" export/render from Element 3D?

Lloyd Alvarez

Considered contacting VideoCopilot for a "Sticky Pass" export/render from Element 3D?

Yes, Andrew is a big fan of P&S but we kinda took our time getting things finished so he went ahead and released Element 2 and worked on some small sci-fi film in the meantime. We plan on regrouping with him to get direct Element support.

Chris Vranos

I may actually have a simple workaround using a UV map on the element object. In short, you'd feed a red/green UV map into the luminance channel of the model's material, then paint on that. Then copy that Paint & Stick effect back to the red/green UV map, and use that as the objects texture. I'll look into it and see if I can get you a workaround in the next few days!

-Chris Vranos
Paint & Stick Product Manager

Miika Turunen

I quickly tried the plug-in and it seems to work pretty well.

-Is there an easy way to animate the brush strokes?

-Is there a way to make the brush stroke to follow a path instead of manually needing to stroke?

-If you can make the the brush stroke to follow a path does this work only on 2D paths or?

Rafael Gustavo Rebonato do Valle

What we've needed for a long time, a "photoshop" inside After Effects. Superb!

Justin Brown

I'm on a Wacom Intuos 3 and when using the plugin, it disrupts the mapping from mouse to pen mode. Is this something that will be fixed so I will be able to use my tablet?

Thanks,

Justin

Chris Vranos

I quickly tried the plug-in and it seems to work pretty well.

-Is there an easy way to animate the brush strokes?

In short, no. The strokes are all fully raster, just like Photoshop. We made it a bitmap image so the performance would remain consistent no matter how many strokes you have. We were also worried that if users had custom brushes, a vector stroke would mean the textures would be unlinked, and you would lose paint work. So in short, all of your frames are essentially just like TIFF files.

-Is there a way to make the brush stroke to follow a path instead of manually needing to stroke?

No, but if you see a need for that we'd be all ears! Do you think brush strokes should be able to follow a mask?

-If you can make the the brush stroke to follow a path does this work only on 2D paths or?

We don't have this feature, but it would very likely be 2D only at first if we made it. Baby steps.

Chris Vranos

I'm on a Wacom Intuos 3 and when using the plugin, it disrupts the mapping from mouse to pen mode. Is this something that will be fixed so I will be able to use my tablet?

Thanks,

Justin

We were unaware of this issue, our team always uses tablets in Pen Mode. Thanks for the tip, we'll dig into it and hopefully it'll be easy to fix.

Miika Turunen

I think that best apps/scripts/plugins are developed by teams that have a vision and the only reason for user input is debugging & get ideas that support the vision... Steve Jobs said it like this (if I remember right): if you dont know what customers want before they ask... your not the one to do it". Thats my version of what he said, probably he didnt say it with that wording. Maybe I'm bit rough with this  

Obviously being able to make brush strokes along a path (mask) would enable using this plugin in more precise way. Let's say I would want to have brush stroke in a perfcet S curve... with mouse it's mission impossible and with a pen/touch input its possible but not fun for everyone. If the plugin would have a feature to draw on paths/masks it could use the "feather" value as pressure of the "pen". In that way the user could control the width of the brush stroke intuitively. You can make a brushstroke follow a path in Photoshop, so I believe it would make this function 1:1 with the tool it's ment to replace.

P&S is a useful plugin for AE. If this would work with Element 3D & have the ability to draw on masks it would be great!

Lloyd Alvarez

Thanks for the great feedback and suggestions Miika. We agree that these would be great features to add to P&S and our goal is to make it as powerful as possible so you don't need to switch to Photoshop, but as Chris said: Baby Steps. We are focusing on the core functions and will slowly add more features. Don't forget that Photoshop has been developed for decades and they certainly didn't have every feature at first. So what I'm saying is keep the feedback coming but we also hope there are tasks you can use P&S with its current feature set and report any issues you run into.

efg fia

Great script!
Can it in some way replace the old Vector Paint "Shift Paint" option?
That is, click a check-box ideally (instead of having to hold down the Shift key as it used to be totally counter-intuitively), start drawing, and have this script record the session. Then have option to play it back at different speeds.

Chris Vranos

Great script!
Can it in some way replace the old Vector Paint "Shift Paint" option?
That is, click a check-box ideally (instead of having to hold down the Shift key as it used to be totally counter-intuitively), start drawing, and have this script record the session. Then have option to play it back at different speeds.

That's a very cool idea. Currently, we're drawing raster, not vector, meaning our Paint works the same way Photoshop does. It's just a bitmap image, strokes are not saved. That would be a huge change for us, so we won't be able to get to it for quite a while. However a lot of users are mentioning that they want Vector strokes, and we're definitely listening and talking about the potential. We will hopefully be able to experiment with this after we've perfected our raster drawing engine.

Clare Swift

Hi,

This sounds like a great script but having checked compatibility its for CC 2015 - so i guess if you have AE CS6 - it doesn't work??? 

Chris Vranos

Hi,

This sounds like a great script but having checked compatibility its for CC 2015 - so i guess if you have AE CS6 - it doesn't work??? 

It does work with CS6, so please give it a try! We might have posted incorrect information. I'll double check to make sure all of our info is correct.

Lloyd Alvarez

Hi,

This sounds like a great script but having checked compatibility its for CC 2015 - so i guess if you have AE CS6 - it doesn't work??? 

Can you tell us where you saw this info.  The compatibility tab says it is compatible with CS6:

After Effects	CC 2015, CC 2014, CC, CS6
Cinema 4D	R17, R16, R15, R14

Kathleen Judge

for some reason my Paint & stick window doesn't show anything more than 'REFRESH' button and '?' help button.  Any suggestions?

Mac OS EL CAPITAN / AE CC 2015

Lloyd Alvarez

for some reason my Paint & stick window doesn't show anything more than 'REFRESH' button and '?' help button.  Any suggestions?

Mac OS EL CAPITAN / AE CC 2015

Do you have any layers with P&S applied? If so, select the comp and hit the refresh button to load them

Chris Vranos

for some reason my Paint & stick window doesn't show anything more than 'REFRESH' button and '?' help button.  Any suggestions?

Mac OS EL CAPITAN / AE CC 2015

That's because you're loading the layer selector script, not the plugin. The plugin is under effect/aescripts+aeplugins/Paint & Stick. Apply that to a layer. The layer selector script is something different, and I assume that's what you're looking at. That's found under "window".

Please check out this video, the first few seconds show where the plugin is located.


Here's more info on that script by the way: https://aescripts.com/knowledgebase/index/view/faq/paint-and-stick/#Scripts

Kathleen Judge

Do you have any layers with P&S applied? If so, select the comp and hit the refresh button to load them

- How can I have any layers with P&S applied if the P&S window only shows 'Refresh' & help?  Is there another effect I need to download first that allows me to add P&S??

Lloyd Alvarez

- How can I have any layers with P&S applied if the P&S window only shows 'Refresh' & help?  Is there another effect I need to download first that allows me to add P&S??

Apply P&S to a comp sized solid layer from the Effect -> aescripts + aeplugins menu.

The P&S selector is only a helper script to help you quickly switch between different P&S effects in the same comp.

Michael Foran

I have wanted something exactly like this for so long! When is the final version going to be released? I have a job coming up in about a month that this will be perfect for.  

Lloyd Alvarez

I have wanted something exactly like this for so long! When is the final version going to be released? I have a job coming up in about a month that this will be perfect for.  

It will be released at the beginning of 2016 so you should be good to use it in a month.

Pat Birks

When I try to make a folder for the keyframes with paint and stick it immediately crashes AE Is this happening to anyone else? 

Chris Vranos

When I try to make a folder for the keyframes with paint and stick it immediately crashes AE Is this happening to anyone else? 

Is this happening for the beta version, or the full release? We have recently found a bug in the beta version in which any folder directory longer than 100 characters can cause a crash, or certain non-english characters can cause a crash. It has been fixed for the full version. Please try the demo of the v1.0.0, or create a folder on the desktop named "frames" to see if it has anything to do with the folder length or characters.
This is a very important bug for us to fix, if neither fix works, please submit a help ticket: https://aescripts.com/contact/?direct=1 The help ticket just makes it a little easier for us to track and share the issue among our team.

Cheers,
Chris
Paint & Stick Product Manager

Jason Satterwhite

wow this is great, looking forward to trying it out!

Scott Simmons

So where is 1.5 beta?  It's not in my Downloads page.

Please advise.

Scott

Chris Vranos

Scott Simmons said:

So where is 1.5 beta?  It's not in my Downloads page.

Please advise.

Scott

Right here! https://aescripts.com/paint-and-stick-public-beta/

Just add to cart, and purchase it for $0.00 like you would any other plugin.

Cheers,
Chris
Paint & Stick Product Manager

Scott Simmons

Got it.  Thanks.  I thought it was automatically added to my downloads from having previously been a beta user.  Thanks for the help.

Scott

Lloyd Alvarez

Scott Simmons said:

Got it.  Thanks.  I thought it was automatically added to my downloads from having previously been a beta user.  Thanks for the help.

Scott

it should be under latest version from the previous beta download

Weichen Wu

Really want to try it out, but after installation and fresh start CS6. It gave me the first error message(happened before I applied the plug-in on any layer)

The same error message also pops up when I try to Show/Hide "Brush Palette", and when clicked on Show/Hide button of "Swatches Palette", it pops up the second error message.

Plus, the onion skin doesn't work at all:( After it is enabled, it doesn't give me any error message, but no matter how many frame step is set, no previous drawing is showed up.

I'm on Win 7/AE CS6

Lloyd Alvarez

Weichen Wu said:

Really want to try it out, but after installation and fresh start CS6. It gave me the first error message(happened before I applied the plug-in on any layer)

The same error message also pops up when I try to Show/Hide "Brush Palette", and when clicked on Show/Hide button of "Swatches Palette", it pops up the second error message.

Plus, the onion skin doesn't work at all:( After it is enabled, it doesn't give me any error message, but no matter how many frame step is set, no previous drawing is showed up.

I'm on Win 7/AE CS6

Have you checked the "Allow scripts to write files" pref in the After Effects general preferences?

Chris Vranos

@Weichen Wu,

Hi Weichen, both of those error messages will be resolved by checking "Allow script to write files to Network" in the general preferences. To clarify, here's a video of where it is: 

As for the Onion Skin issue, it sounds like you're setting "Frame Step". Frame step is how many drawings are skipped when using Onion Skin, so the higher that number is, the more drawings it hides.

You should keep the "Frame Step" at 1. Under Onion Skin/Past Frames/Frames, set that to 10, and Onion Skin/Future Frames/Frames, set that to 10 as well. That will make it show 10 past drawings, and 10 future drawings.

Cheers,
Chris
Paint & Stick Product Manager

Todd Dolce

Hello,

Can you tell me if the brush tool allows for pressure sensitivity with a pen? So if I use this plugin on my tablet with an active Wacom pen,..can I get a variable width stroke using the brush tool?

Thanks,

Todd

Chris Vranos

Yes, definitely! I'm using an Intous Pro right now with my laptop. Please download and try the free beta: https://aescripts.com/paint-and-stick-public-beta/

Feedback is encouraged, please let us know if you have any questions or comments.

Cheers,
Chris
Paint & Stick Product Manager

Weichen Wu

Chris Vranos said:

@Weichen Wu,

Hi Weichen, both of those error messages will be resolved by checking "Allow script to write files to Network" in the general preferences. To clarify, here's a video of where it is: 

As for the Onion Skin issue, it sounds like you're setting "Frame Step". Frame step is how many drawings are skipped when using Onion Skin, so the higher that number is, the more drawings it hides.

You should keep the "Frame Step" at 1. Under Onion Skin/Past Frames/Frames, set that to 10, and Onion Skin/Future Frames/Frames, set that to 10 as well. That will make it show 10 past drawings, and 10 future drawings.

Cheers,
Chris
Paint & Stick Product Manager

Woo hoo!!! Yep it did the trick! A lesson of not reading the install guide in advance:P

Thank you Chris! Happily drawing in AE now:D

S.F. van den Brink

Rendering using Media Encoder doesn't seem to work, all I get is a blank movie. Using the render queue it works fine. Will encoder be supported somehow or am I supposed to pre-render it by design?

Chris Vranos

S.F. van den Brink said:

Rendering using Media Encoder doesn't seem to work, all I get is a blank movie. Using the render queue it works fine. Will encoder be supported somehow or am I supposed to pre-render it by design?

This is a known bug that is on our list. We're not sure exactly why it's not working with AME, so we can't yet say how long it will take to us to figure it out, and fix it. Sorry for the inconvenience, the only workaround would be to pre-render it, as you had suggested. I'm hoping the rest of the software has been working more favorably for you.

Cheers,
Chris
Paint & Stick Product Manager

Ramiro Maldini

Hi, I've trying to use the fill tool in order to change the stroke color but I couldn´t, it seems to only affect the fill. How can I change the stroke color? Is there a way to lock the transparent pixels, as in Photoshop, so I can paint over the stroke and only affect my drawing and not de transparent pixels? 

Besides this, It's looking really well and I would love tu buy it. Thank you very much. 

Chris Vranos

Ramiro Maldini said:

Hi, I've trying to use the fill tool in order to change the stroke color but I couldn´t, it seems to only affect the fill. How can I change the stroke color? Is there a way to lock the transparent pixels, as in Photoshop, so I can paint over the stroke and only affect my drawing and not de transparent pixels? 

Besides this, It's looking really well and I would love tu buy it. Thank you very much. 

Hi Ramiro, glad to hear you're liking Paint & Stick!

In short, yes. You can change the stroke color by separating the strokes from the fill, and using the Fill effect on the strokes layer. You can also do something very similar to locking transparent pixels using the After Effects Alpha Matte. I've put together a short video that shows both of these techniques.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnHAVjJnYW8&feature=youtu.be

Please let us know if you have any additional questions or comments! Also, if you create work with Paint & Stick, we'd love to see it.

Cheers,
Chris
Paint & Stick Product Manager

Douglas Jarman

I purchased the original 1.0 version of paint and stick a little while ago. Am i going to have to pay again to get the 1.5 version? When i click on the " New Version (1.5.0) available, click here to download" in after effects it only takes me to my orders page. Whats the situation?

Chris Vranos

Douglas Jarman said:

I purchased the original 1.0 version of paint and stick a little while ago. Am i going to have to pay again to get the 1.5 version? When i click on the " New Version (1.5.0) available, click here to download" in after effects it only takes me to my orders page. Whats the situation?

Nope! The 1.5 upgrade is free for anyone who owns Paint & Stick.

Sorry for the confusion, we had a minor oversight in our plugin update dialog, it shouldn't be asking you to upgrade to 1.5 just yet, because the permanent version of 1.5 is not yet available.

If you don't mind a few extra installs, you can download the 1.5 beta version now for free: https://aescripts.com/paint-and-stick-public-beta/
Each beta version we post expires after 1 week, but after the beta is done, we will put out a permanent release build for all existing Paint & Stick customers. All project files will be compatible from the beta to the 1.5 release.

Cheers,
Chris
Paint & Stick Product Manager

Ramiro Maldini

Hi Chris, it's me again. I've trying to create a shadow on my drawing, but it's not working I have my drawing with a black line and fill with a random color. Then I set the brush opacity to 20% and draw a line from point X of my drawing to another X point. Then I pick the bucket and set the fill tolerance in order to paint only withing the shadow line, but then instead of filling with a 20% black fill over my color it erases my color and leave a 20% fill with alpha. It's a simple thing that would work great, as I like to keep the shadows in the same layer. Thank you

Chris Vranos

The fill tool only fills empty gaps inside of strokes, but won't fill a region of color that's already filled in. So if your shadow is a 20% opaque circle with an empty inside, you would be able to fill it by setting the Fill Tolerance to 19%, setting your brush opacity to 20%, then clicking the empty inside. If you made a closed and filled shape at 20% opacity, the fill tool with do nothing if it's tolerance were under 20%, and would fill over everything if your tolerance were over 20%, as if those lines weren't there at all. We've considered making a tool or option that allows you to effect your lines, but made sure the fill tool did not, so the lines and fill were always separate layers, and filling would never alter a line. I hate to say it, but I think for your case, two layers would be the best option. You could draw the shadow on the lower layer, then use "Effect/Generate/Fill" to change the color, and opacity to change the opacity. Then you would just have to parent the shadow layer to the top layer to make sure they never were disconnected. We will consider the option of filling in lines, but currently we're not quite set up for that.

Cheers,
Chris
Paint & Stick Product Manager

GIovanni Scoz Girardi

I'm receiving the following error: "Unable to execute script at line 876. Object is invalid"

After that the plug-in start to get REALLY slow.

Any idea?

I'm using After Effects CC 2014 (13.2.0.49).

Chris Vranos

We've seen this bug a few times, and we think it's due to a failed install. We're still trying to pinpoint it, but basically whenever you have the error "unable to execute script" at any line, it's saying the plugin has lost communication with the script, and can't execute whatever command you're sending it. It makes sense that it's moving slow, if you check your dock, that's actually because the script debugger is open, which slows down After Effects.

Please close after effects, then uninstall and re-install the plugin. You can uninstall through these steps:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ym9wqzyun8ey9le/uninstall%20paint%20and%20stick.mov?dl=0

Also, please re-download the latest version, 1.53b, if you haven't already. Then restart After Effects.

Sorry about that, this is a tough bug to nail down, and admittedly things like this are why we're still in beta, not fully released.

Cheers,
Chris
Paint & Stick Product Manager

GIovanni Scoz Girardi said:

I'm receiving the following error: "Unable to execute script at line 876. Object is invalid"

After that the plug-in start to get REALLY slow.

Any idea?

I'm using After Effects CC 2014 (13.2.0.49).

Ken Teutsch

Does Stick work with C4D Lite?  ...And if so, where should the exporter go?  (I'm on a Windows machine and I can't find a "Plugins" folder inside the Maxon folder.)